Stealth
by Idiot Jello
Summary: Z/K. "This whole trip is about her and she needs to control it, she needs the power. She won't be that defenseless little girl. And yet, she gives up another little part of herself to him. It's a bad habit of hers. " Missing moments from "The Southern Raiders."


**_A/N:_**This is somewhat derivative, but I still like it. My take on the Southern Raiders and beyond.

* * *

He sneaks up on her. All the time. She'll be trying to navigate her way through the endless passages of this spirit-forsaken temple, and he'll brush by her with a smirk.

_(She thinks he might take pleasure in watching her struggle to find the path as he keeps his course.)_

Or she'll be practicing bending with Aang near the fountains, and she'll hear a shuffle behind her, and, turning instinctively, will get a face full of scar and smarm.

"Hi," he'll say, and she'll be too flustered to speak, and then he bobs out of view, and arc of fire trailing behind him. She bats away the smoke and sends a tidal wave after his shirtless form.

Zuko cuts through it with a flaming blade.

"Oh no, they're at it again!" Aang grumbles to Toph. Katara readies her fighting stance and bends two ribbons of water into the air. The blind earth bender merely grins and sets her feet down flat for the show.

He'll brush her hands while they work side-by-side in the kitchen as they pass tools and pots and plates. He lingers _(his fingertips too warm to the touch, grazing across her palm and knuckles)_, and she glares at him. When he meets her gaze, he only smiles.

He'll be giving Toph a piggy-back ride or praising Aang's form or arguing over rations with Sokka, and it hits her like a particularly stealthy Ba Sing Se train. Knocks the breath out of her, every time. Surprises her.

Now Zuko slices moonpeaches into segments. He hands one to Toph, and she bites into it delightedly. Smiling, he hands out the rest of the slices to the various teenagers and children alike.

Katara watches him in awe. Standing up, he approaches her and hands out the last moonpeach slice, bowing low.

"You've changed."

He looks up, started for once. Katara feels a burst of pride because of this small victory over him. The vulnerability passes quickly, though, and he restores himself.

"You've noticed." _Finally_, he doesn't say.

She narrows her eyes. "This doesn't mean everything is dandy between us, Jerkbender."

He exhales. "I'd figured." Zuko seizes her wrists (_I'll save you from the pirates_) and leans past her, whispers - (_she can feel his fiery breath on her ear) – "_You're very hard to please." He releases her, turns, and heads back into the darkened hallways of the temple.

The moonpeach segment sits on the dusty temple ground. Its sticky residue remains on her wrists, having passed from his hands to her. Katara wrinkles her nose, her face hot and surely red, and wipes her hands on the sides of her tunic.

"Zuko!"

Behind her, a brawl for the ownership of the neglected slice commences. She is running and Toph is shouting behind her and Haru is laughing good-naturedly, and suddenly Katara is encased in shadows.

"_Zuko_."

He appears behind her, and places a hand on her shoulder. She whirls, turning on her heel, and loses her balance.

He catches her effortlessly. (_His arms tighten around her, her head droops, and her eyelids flutter closed.)_

"You're rather clumsy for a master water bender."

She raises her head, eyes opening wide and full of accusation. "You're rather cocky for a ruthless, back-stabbing, pathetic _exile_!"

They're very close. She sees each muscle of his face fall. He looks away dejectedly, refusing to meet her eye. Her anger evaporates and guilt gathers in the back of her throat; he lets go of her.

"Zuko, I didn't mean it. I –"

"No, you did." He colors. "I'm sorry. For everything. It was not my place to – " he swallows the rest of the sentence. " – to _behave_ as I did."

He begins to turn, to flee. She grabs him by the arm.

"No. It's all right. It's okay. I –" She trails off. He is staring at her grip on his forearm. She lets her fingers slip. "I don't think you're ruthless," Katara says. "Or pathetic. Or a back-stabber. And you're one of us now."

The words sound hollow, even to her.

Zuko doesn't look at her.

"Really," she insists, her voice cutting through the air harshly.

They had been so near before, but now there is this chasm between them – full of rapids and jagged cliffs.

Katara stares at his retreating back, torn between guilt and self-righteousness.

0000

The next morning dawns with alongside the roar of engines and the ominous cracking of the ceiling. Everything passes in a blur; a mish-mash of images as she gathers and prepares for their necessary getaway. Azula's airships loom in the sky and Katara does another headcount and the next thing she knows she's being pushed, she's falling, she's sprawled on the tile floor of the temple, a heavy presence pinning her to the ground. She's grateful, she really is, but he's lingering again. _(His breath once again heating her ear – "Okay, I'm not crushed!")_

Her rage is provoked even more when he refuses to stay with them because he wants to end some sort of grudge-match with his psychotic sister. But she doesn't have time to scold him; she doesn't have time for anything.

(_Her father is leaving, again. She doesn't know why it still surprises her.)_

The next time she sees Zuko he's falling through the air. Her world view narrows, and she reaches out to him, grasping his forearm and pulling him down to her.

The image of him, wide-eyed and helpless, barely comprehending what was happening – it haunts her all day. Later (_after they escape the temple, after they make camp, after she has a good long sulk about leaving her dad-again)_, he thanks her for saving him, and she says _your welcome_ tonelessly.

He was just _so stupid_. He could've _died_. But she can't yell at him. Because only yesterday she was horrible to him. So now the anger is just festering inside of her, and it's around dinnertime when she realizes bottling it up was probably not the best idea.

She explodes and leaves and he follows her.

It quickly escalates into a shouting match, and he's finally screaming at her _(the worst thing about yelling at Zuko is that he doesn't yell back)_ for being the only one who doesn't trust him. But that is so unfair.

Because she was the _first_ to trust him. Back in Ba Sing Se. She had reached out to him and he had reciprocated, just a little. That was the first time Katara had really taken a good look at Zuko and she saw perhaps not an enemy, but a confused kid whose face had somehow been mangled beyond repair. And she thought – what if it _isn't_ beyond repair?

And so she had reached out, and he had leaned in. In that moment she trusted him, and he had trusted her. Something fragile between them had blossomed. But then the wall exploded and crushed that fragile something and then she had to leave him. And the next thing she knew, he had chosen Azula.

Instead of _her_.

She can't help feeling a little scorned. So now she's making ridiculous demands of him, blaming him for things that aren't his fault.

Katara storms pass him, making a beeline for the girl tent. She doesn't answer Sokka's questions and ignores Aang's hurt expression when she snaps at him. Inside the tent, she finds her furs and curls up with them. It's too hot to sleep with them in the summer, but she doesn't care. She begins to sweat uncomfortably, but the pain in her chest is just so much _more_.

She aches for her mother's embrace, for the sound of her voice. Sokka once said that he didn't remember their mom that much, but for Katara it is different. She remembers it all.

_(A warm fire and a soothing cadence, calloused hands and the blue beads and braids that she wove in her hair.)_

Much later, she hears Suki and Toph retreat to the tent. She listens to Suki pretend to go to sleep and listens as she sneaks back out.

Katara falls asleep quickly after that, exhausted.

0000

She doesn't allow him to fly the bison. She wants as much control of this situation as she can get. Katara knows, of course, that none of this would be possible without Zuko. He's the one with the information. He's the one that's helping her. He's the one who came up with this crazy idea in the first place.

But this whole trip is about her and she needs to control it, she needs the power. She won't be that defenseless little girl.

And yet, she gives up another little part of herself to him. _(It's a bad habit of hers.)_ She tells him about the first time she saw the black snow.

Because even though she hasn't forgiven him, she can't help but trust him.

0000

The moon is full that night. Katara is restless, insomnia run rampant, and she has no choice but to crawl out of her tent. Their fire is nothing but embers now. The night sky is wide and clear and quite clear. She admires the scenery for a while, looking around. Then she sees it, in the distance. She tenses, thinking it might be an enemy. She takes another step to see it better.

A dark figure sits slumped against a boulder. The silhouette of his hair reveals it to be Zuko.

She approaches him, and is pleased when he doesn't notice her. She's gotten better at being stealthy. When she comes alongside him, her smile falls. He's asleep.

So much for being stealthy. _Next time of the Adventures of Ninja Katara: Creeping Up On a Dead Sparrowkeet Without Any Trouble at All!_

Katara smiles to herself and sits beside him, quickly making the decision to wake him up.

People are supposed to look peaceful when they sleep, but Zuko doesn't. He's got a permanent line between his eyes, and she wonders what he's worrying about. His lips are pouting, and she forces her eyes to only glance at them in passing.

Leaning on him, she blows in his face. His mouth twitches.

She jabs him hard in the side with two fingers.

His amber eyes snap open, and in the back of her mind she can feel his panicked heart and rushing blood. He tries to sit up, and she puts a calming hand on his chest, instinctively guiding the blood as it slows.

"It's just me."

He stares at her, becoming increasingly relaxed. Her fingers twitch, and he tenses again. She removes her hand.

"What are you doing out here?" Katara asks evenly, breaking away from his gaze.

"I must've fallen asleep." His voice is hoarser than usual.

She licks her lips. "Doing what?"

"Star-gazing." She quirks an eyebrow at him, and he rushes to explain. "My Uncle…he used to do it, sometimes, after he's had a bit of liquor and was feeling…romantic. He liked your stars."

"My stars?" she questions.

He glances at her. "The ones in the Southern hemisphere. The South pole."

She stares back at him. His shoulders are slumped, and in the midst of everything, she notices something.

"You miss him."

It's a statement, not a question. Zuko nods and lets his head dip between his knees. Lifting it back up, he drags a palm down his face.

"He had assisted and took care of me for years and I betrayed him."

Something instinctive kicks in in the back of Katara's mind.

"He loves you, Zuko," she says. "He'll forgive you."

He inhales swiftly, looking at her. And hesitates.

"People have a hard time forgiving me," Zuko says at last. The look in his eyes is so vulnerable. Katara doesn't know what to do or say. Something is welling up inside of her and knotting itself at the back of her throat.

The silence between them is deafening.

"I'm gonna try to sleep. You should too," Katara murmurs, dismissing herself. As she walks back to her tent, she focuses on her breathing and tries to calm herself down. It's all so mixed up – anger and humiliation and sadness and guilt and how is even supposed to know what she feels anymore?

How does Zuko even expect her to know? Maybe after tomorrow, after she finds her mother's killer. Maybe then she'll know, maybe she'll know after finally bringing herself closure.

She hopes for that peace with all she has, because she doesn't think she can bear anymore of this perpetual confusion.

0000

In spite of all of her carrying on, Katara really does like Zuko. Maybe like is not the right word. She appreciates him. The things he does. For her, and for Aang. For Toph. For the group.

He doesn't judge her. He helps her. She likes that. She likes how he doesn't ask her about how she had seized control of that innocent man's blood and used it against him. She likes his reassuring presence behind her during all of their sneaking about. She likes how easily their fighting styles merged, how they learned to work together and compensate for each other's weak spots. She likes the team they make.

Now, she likes the way he's holding her while she's crying, a bit snottily, into his shirt.

She's just confronted Yon Rha. She still doesn't know how she feels, except like crying. But Zuko takes that in stride just like how he has the rest of her weird bullshit during this whole ordeal, and she likes that.

She likes his arms around her and the circles he's tracing on her back. She likes the meaningless soothing words he's uttering.

Maybe like _is _the right word.

She can't imagine being mad at him, doesn't remember all of the anger and resentment she once had. Because he is holding her, and he's done so much for her this trip. Just by being there. Giving her the opportunity. Not telling her what to think or say. _(Or who to forgive)_.

Katara pulls away and looks up at him, her vision a bit blurred by tears. Zuko is looking at her with concern. She should thank him. Or apologize. Or both. Definitely both. But right now, she can't find the words.

"I'm sorry about your shirt," Katara mutters instead. She reaches out and pats the damp spot on his shoulder uselessly.

"It's fine," he says. She ceases her awkward patting.

"What do you want to do?"

She also likes that this trip is about what _she _wants to do and what _she _needs. She's become so used to it being about others, and lately, about Aang. But no, stop. Katara doesn't want to think about Aang right now.

"Lets…lets go find lunch. And then find Appa. And then we go home."

Zuko nods, and then they do just that.

0000

They find a little café in Yon Rha's village and Zuko tells her about the one and only date he's ever been on. It was while he and his uncle were living in the lower ring of Ba Sing Se.

"Her name was Jin, and we went to place like this. She asked where I was from. I told her I used to be a circus performer – which was a mistake. She made me juggle."

Zuko's delivery is not very humorous in of itself, but the mental image of him failing spectacularly at juggling is enough to make her laugh. When she meets his gaze again, he looks pleased. Katara guesses that making people laugh is a relatively new experience to Zuko. That breaks her heart a little.

When they are returning to the hilltop where they left Appa, they are walking close enough to hold hands. Zuko never makes a move, and neither does she, but it's nice all the same. Katara is comforted by the possibility that lies there.

They really do take shifts driving on the way back.

0000

She lets Zuko take care of the unpacking, and the confronting, and the explaining. She trusts him to hold off the others for just a little while, allowing her to sit at this dock and think. Katara is overdue for a thinking session.

She thinks about how that man was not really a monster. He was pathetic. He was just this sad, empty shell of a human. He deserved to die. He would even be happier dead, it seemed. She could have done it. She has killed before, it was just something she didn't often think about.

But this had been different. This had been one man, outside of the heat of battle, unlike any adversary she'd encountered. He was not trying to attack anyone she loved. This had not been retaliation for what he was doing, but for what he had done. This had been revenge. And she just…found herself unable.

She thinks that her mother would have not wanted her to kill Yon Rha.

She can kill for justice, for Aang, for peace. But she cannot kill for her mother. She cannot kill out of grief, or bitterness, or whatever emotion this was that consumed her so wholly.

She doesn't know if that made her strong, or weak.

With that done and decided, her thoughts turn to Zuko. But there isn't much to think about, because she's already forgiven him, long before this little excursion of theirs. She forgave him bit by bit every day. She has only realized it today, during her cathartic cry into his shoulder.

Katara knows she will have to spell it out for him to realize it too, though. She's looking forward to them officially being friends. It was just exhausting, hating Zuko. She kept having to find new and creative reasons to be mad at him and overreacting at every annoyance.

The thought makes her grimace, bowing her head. She's been really horrible to him. She's going to have to make all of it up.

That's when she hears the footsteps behind her on the dock.

Aang doesn't understand. Katara is annoyed, but unsurprised. So now she's stepping past him, looking to Zuko.

"But I _am _ready to forgive you," she says, which is a bit of a lie.

It's almost comical how Zuko's entire being relaxes, and he looks at her hopefully. Katara hesitates. The last time they embraced was when they were alone, and she had been crying. But she throws her arms around him anyway. She has startled him, but he gets over it quickly and wraps his arms around her waist. Katara still feels a bit uncomfortable touching Zuko in front of Aang, but she needs this. They need this.

She's careful to break away before it gets weird, and likewise leaves the two before she can embarrass herself.

As she walks away, Katara feels a lot lighter than she has in a long time.

0000

He still sneaks up on her. It doesn't annoy her like it used to, though. She might just be happy to see him. By the time the group relocates to Ember Island, Zuko and Katara are damn near inseparable. She is suddenly struck by the urge to know everything about him. Zuko is her teacher – sometimes reluctant to share information, other times happily surprised by her attention. In those weeks before the comet she makes up for lost time and learns as much as she can.

She learns how he got his scar. She learns firsthand about the way he pushes people away when he's feeling truly vulnerable. She learns that she can't solve everything with a quick fix via a hug and a long talk about feelings. She learns that sometimes, you have to let people figure things out by themselves and help them any way you can. _(Like he did for her)._

She learns about Fire nation politics and how to play Pai Sho. She learns about his life in the lower ring of Ba Sing Se. She learns about his Uncle, and Lu Ten. She learns about Dao swords and a kid named Lee and he even tells her a little about his mother.

"I don't know much," he says. "I remember her as this wonderful, caring person. But apparently she killed Fire Lord Azulon."

"Your grandfather," Katara confirms.

"Yes. It's just. I knew my family was messed up, but I had thought she was…well, obviously I was wrong. I really didn't know her at all."

The haunted looks in his eyes drives her to take his hand.

"_I_ know something. She must've loved you a lot."

There's a hint of a smile on his lips.

She learns proper Firenation silverware etiquette and how to redirect lightning and the scientific name for several types of firelilies. She learns about turtleducks and legend of the Blue Sprit. She learns about Azula and Ty Lee, but not about Mai. When she pesters him about her, and snaps and proclaims he _does not want to talk about it_. She's learnt that he only uses that tone when he's really serious about something, so she doesn't push it.

She learns the sound of his laugh. It's really dorky. She loves it.

No, she loves him. _(Katara pauses in chopping the vegetables for dinner, struck by the sudden realization.)_

Huh. Love.

_(She smiles, returning to her work.)_

It must've snuck up on her.


End file.
